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Published on December 16, 2007

The handmade, lightweight "Likay" notebooks offer attractive textures and patterns. Meanwhile ML Chiratorn Chirapravati and his "gang" bring a design vision that can be simple or weird to a variety of products.

Take a look. You might find just what you were searching for.

To Phantipa Thanchookiet and Mali Chaturachinda, setting down their thoughts in writing is a valuable and life affirming activity. Their first notebooks were made for their own use, but during the past three years they've become obsessed with creating distinctive books to offer to the public under their Likay label.

The label's name has nothing to do with the traditional Siamese dance drama, it's actually a combination of their nicknames, Li (Mali) and Kay (Phantipa).

The whole book making process is done by hand, from the folding and punching to the sewing and binding.

Such a meticulous process means that only 196 notebooks targeting a niche market have been created over the past three years. The colour and texture of the pages varies, making them a joy to flip through. The books interleaf blank pages with handcrafted collectibles like old postcards, railway tickets, calling cards and paper cutouts and mix in distinctive typography and graphic design.

To stretch their use beyond the recording of thoughts, Phantipa and Mali are introducing a new line of "lamp books", which also function as table lamps. Each 26-by-35 centimetre lamp book is accompanied by a lamp base and electric light bulb. With light shining through the translucent pages, the message now comes illuminated.

"I want to change our approach to how we express ourselves in words. Someone might be too shy to tell their own story in the public, but happy to share their thoughts with a notebook in tranquil surroundings," says Phantipa, who graduated in typography and book art from the London College of Printing and Camberwell College of Art.

Likay has also launched a new series of weird and wonderful notebooks, suited to anyone with a head full of different thoughts. One notebook, for example, comprises four books in different sizes that are handstitched together.

"I like writing and sometimes one book isn't enough for my different musings and messages," explains Phantipa. "But I want to keep my different notebooks close together, so I came up with the idea for this creation."

Mali and Phantipa also make books to customers' orders. If you have any memorable stuff or valuable photos, they can incorporate them to a book that tells your own story.

"Our books target a niche market because many people regard them as wild and weird - they're impossible to sell at department stores," says Mali, who took her degree in graphic design at St Martins College of Art and Design and now runs the Bangkok design firm Beourfriend.

Witness the prettiness of their paper creations at Geo shop on Soi Thonglor (opposite Camillian Hospital). Call (02) 381 4324.

Illustrations have always been considered the poor cousin of fine art, but ML Chiratorn Chirapravati can attest to their unwavering appeal, and the rather astonishing rewards they offer as a career.

The artist better known as Kru Toh is cherished for his minimalism and clean, freeform lines. For the past 13 years he's run a small art school on the second floor of Promenade Decor. "Many people," he says, "call this place a hangout for Kru Toh's gang, as illustrators and artists regularly gather here".

For the second year running, Chiratorn and his chums are showcasing and selling their products, each bearing the distinctive style of the individual who created them. Bags made from unique fabrics, T-shirts, dolls, mugs, lamps and stools are just a sample of the items on offer at "Love at First Shop II" taking place at J Avenue's gallery on Soi Thonglor. Works by siblings Patreeda and Nualtong Prasanthong, Kongpat Sakdapitak, ML Rojanatorn na Songkhla, Somnuek Klangnok and Supornthip Choungrangsee will be featured.

Chiratorn has come up with a variety of products including wooden houses, notebooks, paperweights, mugs, T-shirts and calendars. All items bear his distinctive clean lines depicting round cheerful faces in pastel shades.

"My work isn't cartoonlike - there's a dreamlike effect," he says. "I just pick up the simplest forms. My flowers have four ovalshaped petals and people's faces are just round forms. I love the circle because it's born from the shape of the sun and the moon - my sources of energy," he says.

The siblings Patreeda and Nualtong launch their products under the label Pancake Family, which offers reversible fabric bags, dolls, T-shirts, mobilephone cases and hats.

Patreeda, or Pang as she likes to be known, is one of Chiratorn's students but has become a highly soughtafter illustrator in her own right, with her childlike, eyecatching drawingsappearing regularly in magazines and on book covers. Her younger sister Nualtong - or Nual - has followed in Pang's artistic footsteps, though their styles are as different as their characters.

Pang's drawings are freeform, deliberately avoiding sophisticated technique in favour of an easygoing optimism, while Nual's artworks of fabulous girls are full of dynamic and swooping gestures that reflect her energy and hip personality.

Kongpat, who is known for transforming found objects into functional products, presents unusual and funky table lamps. For one of his lamps he fashions a base by decorating an upturned colander with artificial flowers and found objects like an old tape cassette, plastic dolls and a shoe brush.

Jewellery designer Rojanatorn presents floor lamps, stools, scarves and clutch bags, all of which were created from fabrics whose pattern came from the designs for her jewellery pieces. Somnuek showcases fabric dolls of a little girl, cat and pig while Supornthip features her jewellery design for the label Tippy & Matthew.

"Love at First Shop II" continues until January 15 at J Avenue on Soi Thonglor 15. It's open daily from 10am to 8pm. Call (02) 712 6356.

Khetsirin Pholdhampalit

The Nation